Houghton Library, Harvard University

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Considered one of the greatest illustrators of the French press is Jean Sennep, also known as Jean-Jacques Charles Pennes, who worked for several French newspapers including Candide and Le Figaro. He also published quite a few volumes of his cartoons including Le Milieu which has 52 full pages of political cartoons that primarily expose the shenanigans and corruption of French politics in the 1930s. Sennep was typically considered to be part of the French Right and anti-communist, nationalistic, and often anti-Semitic. His cartoons show a very definite nationalistic point of view and echoed a lot of popular opinion for the time.

Below you can see a caricature of Leon Blum and Edouard Daladier, both members of the government in 1934. Sennep appears to be referring to the February 6th street demonstration that was organized by far-right groups and ended up in a riot by the French National Assembly. Several people were killed and many were injured during the riot.